Senior UN official in Iraq urges countries to accept Iranian dissidents after killings

BAGHDAD – The acting U.N. envoy to Iraq says the killing of 52 members of an Iranian dissident group that the Iraqi government wants out of the country should be "a wake-up call" to the international community to do more to find them homes abroad.

Members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq group were welcomed into Iraq by Saddam Hussein, but the current Iraqi government considers their presence illegal.

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The last 42 residents of the group's home in Camp Ashraf joined thousands of their comrades at a Baghdad camp this week. That compound is meant to be a temporary residence while the United Nations works to resettle them abroad.

Acting envoy Gyorgy Busztin on Friday said all countries willing to accept the exiles should come forward. He called the Sept. 1 killings "a game changer."